Temporary road with pipes to facilitate flood carrier channel work being laid

TIRUNELVELI

TIRUNELVELI

Laying of a temporary road along the Tirunelveli – Kanniyakumari four-lane highway to facilitate the digging of Tamirabharani – Karumaeniyar – Nambiyar flood carrier channel has begun as insertion of huge pipes to ensure free flow of flood water, being diverted in this channel from the river, is being laid.

In 2008, the State government started digging of 73 km-long flood carrier channel from Vellankuzhi near Veeravanallur to M.L. Thaeri near Sattankulam to take the flood water of the Tamirabharani, going waste into the sea, to nourish the dry regions of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts.

Though the first two phases of this project have been almost completed, only a small portion of the remaining two phases have been finished since the previous government was not reportedly keen on expediting the project.

 After reviewing the progress of this project from Kottaikarunkulam near Valliyoor to Arasoor near Sattankulam on April 5 last, Speaker M. Appavu set a deadline to complete the work in the tail-end areas within next 90 days as the Public Works Department engineers responsible for this region have so far completed only 3% to 12% of the works in the past one-and-a-half years.

 Mr. Appavu, while asking the NHAI officials to lay the temporary road to ensure free flow of traffic even as the bridge is being constructed, asked them to insert huge pipes beneath this temporary road so that the flood water getting diverted from the Tamirabharani in the flood carrier channel from Vellankuzhi near Cheranmahadevi would not destabilize the temporary road even though bridge is not ready before the onset of northeast monsoon.

So, the laying of temporary road on both sides of the existing four-lane highway with huge pipes inserted beneath this arrangement was started.